FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Cleburne County, Alabama

Bankhead Lookout Tower

100 ft USFS tower in Talladega National Forest, Cleburne County, AL; NHLR-registered May 2023 as US 1731. No build date, history or access found in the sources read.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100-foot tower; the register's description says the writer believes it was made by International DerrickThe design: IDECO
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
1,375 ft (419 m)
Agency
USFS (U.S. Forest Service), Talladega National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Cleburne County, Alabama
Coordinates
33.67391, −85.62188
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-al-bankhead

View from the cab

What you see from the cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

Downloads about 3.1 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered May 30, 2023 as US 1731, AL 82; nominated by Jason JohnsSource: nhlr.org
  2. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Bankhead Lookout Tower stands in the Talladega National Forest in Cleburne County, Alabama, at about 1,375 feet, or 419 meters.1 The National Historic Lookout Register lists it as US 1731 and AL 82, and describes it as a 100-foot USFS tower.1

The name is easy to mix up. The William B. Bankhead National Forest is another of Alabama's national forests, and the register places this tower in the Talladega instead.2,1

We found no build date for the tower in the register or in the other sources we read. The register's description says the writer believes it was made by International Derrick.1

The register accepted the tower on May 30, 2023, on the nomination of Jason Johns.1 In the sources we could read, we found no record of who staffed the tower, which fires it watched, or its condition since it was registered in 2023. We also found no statement about public access. Because the tower sits inside a national forest, anyone interested should check with the Forest Service before visiting, and should not climb it.

  1. Bankhead Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/bankhead-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Talladega National Forest, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talladega_National_Forest (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bankhead Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Bankhead Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Bankhead Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Bankhead Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Bankhead Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, what it is built of, status, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.